"Stuff is eaten by dogs, broken by family and friends, sanded down by the wind, frozen by the mountains, lost by the prairie, burnt off by the sun, washed away by the rain. So you are left with dogs, family, friends, sun, rain, wind, prairie and mountains. What more do you want?"
Federico Calboli

Friday, June 05, 2009

More on Paleoindian Art

I just wanted to jump in to talk about Steve's post on that beautiful etching on bone of a mammoth or mastodon recently discovered in Florida. The only thing I can think of that is anything like it is this carving that was found in the 1870s at Tequixquiac in central Mexico. It is the sacrum of an extinct llama that has been carved so that it looks like the head of a coyote. It is not securely dated but was found in Pleistocene deposits and has been generally accepted as genuine. There are some other etchings on bone from Mexico that are reputed from this era, but they aren't authenticated at this time.

There are a number of Clovis-era bone rods, shaft wrenches and other functional pieces known from North America, but none with representational art on them that I'm aware of.

You may recall that I had a post in September, 2007 about a possible mammoth or mastodon petroglyph, found underwater in Lake Michigan. It's nothing like the quality of this piece. If you click through that post it links to some other discussions I've posted about possible Paleoindian art and the problems with it.